Thanks, Kelly, for your post. By far the most sensible response to the
original poster's inquiry.

Steven Kimball
Federal Way, WA
sdkimball at earthlink.net


----- Original Message -----
From: Kelly Cassidy <lostriver at seanet.com>
To: tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2000 9:01 PM
Subject: Saving starlings


> There have been many posts in the past about whether wildlife
rehabilitation
> has any effect on wildlife populations. Unless the species is limited by
> factors other than habitat or is a species with so few members that all
> individuals are critical for their genetic contribution, the consensus of
> most biologists is that rehabilitation is a waste of conservation
resources.
>
> But, if you argue that rehabilitation of a native species has essentially
no
> effect, you can't turn around and argue that rehabilitation of a starling
> WILL have an effect. The populations of starlings are controlled by large
> landscape changes (loss of forest; creation of lawns, blah, blah, blah).
> Rehabilitating one starling will have zero effect on starling populations.
>
> For the people doing the rehabilitating, however, the experience can be an
> educational and enjoyable. Many years ago, I rescued a baby house
sparrow.
> The bird was only a day or two old and had no feathers. I never released
> him--he would have been socially inept--but I got a kick out of watching
him
> get feathers, learn to fly, and defend his territory (the house) from
humans
> he didn't know. He was a brave, aggressive bird, even to creatures that
> outweighed him by orders of magnitude.
>
> So, to the original poster, adopt the starling if you want the hassle, and
> ignore the naysayers. Dog food is a good, more or less complete food if
you
> don't have any handy bugs. I like starlings, myself. They're beautiful
and
> melodious, and if I scorned and despised them, it would have no more
effect
> on their population than rehabilitating one would.
>
> Passing soapbox back to the starling haters,
> Kelly Cassidy
>
>
>
>